“Math Girls”: A book teen-girls can moon over, not moan over …

Still hot off the presses, is a much awaited English translation of the Japanese book entitled “Math Girls” (see image of book cover above) from the popular Japanese version, 数学ガール ゲーデルの不完全性定理 2 (MFコミックス アライブシリーズ) by Hiroshi Yuki (see book cover below). The first thing my kids love to do when they “make the bilingual connection” between books is to compare the book covers, “Why is the English book cover always so boring compared to the Japanese one?” comes their comment, unvarying as always.

More about the content however, are the excerpts below from the book cover and reviews taken from Amazon.com:

Math isn’t hard. Love is.

Currently in its eighteenth printing in Japan, this best-selling novel is available in English at last. Combining mathematical rigor with light romance, Math Girls is a unique introduction to advanced mathematics, delivered through the eyes of three students as they learn to deal with problems seldom found in textbooks. Math Girls has something for everyone, from advanced high school students to math majors and educators.

Praise for Math Girls!

“Sometimes the math goes over your head—or at least my head. But that hardly matters. The focus here is the joy of learning, which the book conveys with aplomb.”
—Daniel Pink, NYT and WSJ best-selling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

“if you have a…teenager who’s really into math, this is a really interesting choice”
—Carol Zall, Public Radio International, The World

“Math Girls provides a fun and engaging way to learn and review mathematical concepts…the characters’ joy as they explore and discover new and old ideas is infectious.” —review, “Experiments in Manga” blog

Reviews from amazon.co.jp

“As a physics major, math has always been a painful tool to use and nothing more. But Math Girls changed the way I look at mathematics. Now I actually find it interesting!”
— “Au”

“Math Girls is a fun read, but I was surprised to find that it’s also a serious math book chock full of careful explanations. I hope that people who think they don’t like math will read it. Even when the formulas go over your head, just following the story gives you a great feel for how fun math can be.”
— “Nyanta”

“I got hooked on this book during summer vacation, and had a great time reading it by the pool. It was so good that I read it twice, the second time while working out the problems on the hotel stationary.”
— “Kei0210”

“Advanced math, explained in a playful way. But it’s not just a textbook, with dry solutions to problems. It’s a bittersweet story, with mathematics telling part of the tale. A brilliant comparison between the uncertainties of youth and the absolute proofs of symbols and numbers.”
— Shiori Oguchi

“if you have a…teenager who’s really into math, this is a really interesting choice”
—Carol Zall, Public Radio International, The World

“Math Girls provides a fun and engaging way to learn and review mathematical concepts…the characters’ joy as they explore and discover new and old ideas is infectious.” —review, “Experiments in Manga” blog

Reviews from amazon.co.jp

“As a physics major, math has always been a painful tool to use and nothing more. But Math Girls changed the way I look at mathematics. Now I actually find it interesting!”
— “Au”

“Math Girls is a fun read, but I was surprised to find that it’s also a serious math book chock full of careful explanations. I hope that people who think they don’t like math will read it. Even when the formulas go over your head, just following the story gives you a great feel for how fun math can be.”
— “Nyanta”

“I got hooked on this book during summer vacation, and had a great time reading it by the pool. It was so good that I read it twice, the second time while working out the problems on the hotel stationary.”
— “Kei0210”

“Advanced math, explained in a playful way. But it’s not just a textbook, with dry solutions to problems. It’s a bittersweet story, with mathematics telling part of the tale. A brilliant comparison between the uncertainties of youth and the absolute proofs of symbols and numbers.”
— Shiori Oguchi

Thank you for the correction Tony. A cleaner and more staid cover is more to my taste too, but then I am old and staid :). Since the teenage -set will be reading it, more importantly, what do they think…